Jeremy Jabber

Well, it’s exam time, and who doesn’t love exam week? It’s a wonderful, magical time of stress, late nights, procrastination and replacing the blood in your veins with coffee. It’s a time for regretting all those nights you could have gone out with friends, or maybe regretting all those episodes of Breaking Bad you watched, instead of actually doing chemistry homework.

Exam week is an opportunity to prove to your profs that you weren’t just sleeping the whole time, and that you actually know what you’re talking about. It’s also a time to prepare for going home, especially for those of us who have many miles to travel to make it home.

Whether on planes or in cars, it can sometimes be quite a challenge to make it back. Other drivers, other flyers, crying babies, flat tires, and especially the weather can stand in the way of us getting back to our families. We’ve all been in stressful travel situations; whether that’s a flight delay or cancellation, a car accident, or someone oversleeping and missing their ride or flight.

The thing that bothers me most about people traveling is when they think they’re the ONLY PERSON traveling, or that they’re somehow more important than everyone else. We’ve all seen them at some point; at airports they push to the front of the line, they complain constantly, they yell at stuff and people and are the loudest thing in the room. On the road, these people drive 90 miles an hour all the time, they always want to pass and won’t slow down, even if it’s dangerous, they are totally OK with blasting the horn if they are being ignored.

My one request, all I want for Christmas, the one thing you should take from this column, the one thing you should have learned this year, is this: DON’T BE THAT GUY. Travel like a normal, reasonable person. There will be hundreds of people around you, all trying to get home. What makes you so special that you always have to get your way? Calm down. Adapt to the situation, and always let old people and families with children go first. Or else everyone will hate you.

Whether you are flying through Sioux Falls, Omaha, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles, Vancouver or any other airport, be the kindest person in the room, not the loudest. Whether you’re driving down an Interstate, a blacktop, a gravel road, or even just stopping for gas, be the safest, kindest and least annoying driver you can.

If we all just do our part and let other people do theirs, we will all get home safe and have a stress-free time getting there.

Above all, Merry Christmas. Travel safe, have a great break and get on back here for next semester! I know it’ll be great!